For people who spend much of their time travelling in their automobile for recreation or for their livelihood, it is often a great convenience to have a table or platform in the automobile which can be deployed quickly to the outside of the vehicle, using the vehicle for part or complete support.
Such a table or platform which, for part support is attached to a vehicle has been disclosed in earlier patents. U.S. Pat. No. 3,709,159 by Oglesby issued Jan. 9, 1973 discloses a table which is attached to the rear edge of a vehicle trunk and which folds out horizontally to the rear of the vehicle and which has folding legs that fold down to touch the ground and support the table.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,896,742 by Ferraro, issued July 29, 1975, discloses a roll-out table with slats that is normally stored in a compartment in the trunk of a vehicle. Other patents describe tables that fold out from their storage space behind trunk tail gates or van doors.
All earlier such table contructions known to the inventor depend on some form of fold-down legs that rest on the ground for part support. That however is often a drawback, since the ground outside the vehicle may be uneven or otherwise unsuited to support the weight of a table.
Additionally, earlier automotive table constructions require adaptions of the vehicle which limit its utility. The present invention does not have such limitations, as will be understood from the following detailed description thereof.
It is therefore a primary object of the present invention to provide an automotive table that may be conveniently stored inside a vehicle and which may be extended to a position outside the vehicle without the need for ground support.
It is a further important object of the present invention to provide an automotive table which may be quickly and easily extended from a storage position inside the vehicle to its position outside the vehicle by simple manipulation of the table.
It is another important object of the present invention to provide an automotive table that is extendable from a storage position inside the vehicle to an outside position, and that is readily adaptable to a wide range of types of vehicles.
It is still another important object of the present invention to provide an automotive extendable table that occupies a minimum of storage space inside the vehicle in its non-extended position and that does not obstruct access to other vehicle implements such as spare wheel and jack.
It is still another object of the invention to provide an automotive extendable table that can be readily fabricated from inexpensive materials and that is sturdy and durable in operation.
Other advantages of the present invention will become apparent from the following detailed description thereof.